40% of ANZ orgs expect to deploy AI this year

Around 40% of organisations in Australia and New Zealand plan to deploy an AI initiative by the end of 2020, according to IDC.

The research firm's report 'AI in Australia and NZ: Viable Use Cases Driving Adoption' finds that the main drivers behind organisations' AI investments are automation for productivity (49.4%) and customer satisfaction (48.8%), as well as business agility and accuracy (47.5% each).

The report found that the COVID-19 crisis has dampened business spending intent in 2020, yet close to one-third of organisations expect their AI budgets to increase this year.

Meanwhile over half of Australian and New Zealand organisations in the process of implementing AI say the deployments are enabling changes to their business models.

"Organisations are investing in AI solutions to adjust quickly to market changes and enhance the customer experience through improved business processes," IDC Associate Market Analyst Liam Landon said.

"The additional benefit of business agility gives organisations the ability to be more flexible to changes in the market, unlocking greater potential to stay ahead of competitors. This is especially key given the recent stress many workplaces have been placed under due to COVID-19."

IT operations and customer service business processes are common uses of AI and will remain frequent, with more simplistic implementations such as chatbots being popular in A/NZ, IDC said.

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